WHY NOW
by NeneWorld
Summary: Sakura is having a hard time coming into realization on how she feels about Naruto. With his birthday approaching, she doesn’t have much time to think. She asks herself a question she never has asked herself before—why now? A NaruSaku romance fanfic by NeneWorld.
1. Contemplating

**—NeneWorld—**

**WHY NOW**

**Chapter 1** \- Contemplating

**October 7**

It was almost Naruto's birthday and Sakura just could not get him out of her head. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not push the person who has kept her promise to her for so long just to make her happy. She wasn't happy though. She thought she would be but, she just wasn't, even now, she is not happy. For so long, she had tried to convince herself that she was in love with someone else.—for years she was blinded by the fact that the person she was in love with all along, was standing by her side that whole time. Mission after mission, endless bickering and fighting, but the good times too. 

"Naruto..." Sakura had to think for a minute. Was she just thinking a little bit too hard at this? She was certain that she was right. She knew her feelings for Naruto were a bit... _confusing_ at first—she wasn't sure how she really felt about him but, her heart was telling her that she was, in fact, in love with him. "How could I have been so stupid?" She kept asking herself that question over and over and over again in her head as if she had it on repeat. All she could do was shake her head in disdain at herself. "He has Hinata now... she has always loved Naruto... right?" She wanted to believe that, she really did, but things just didn't add up as to how Hinata fell in love with Naruto. She could go into detail about it but, it'll only make her think thrice as hard as she was now. 

She let out an audible sigh and just sat there at her kitchen table alone as always, sipping coffee out of her favorite green mug. Beside her was a photo album of Team 7. All she was focusing on was the person that was next to her in that photo— Naruto Uzumaki. "I wonder what you are doing right now, Naruto..." she asked herself, absentmindedly tracing the outline of his face with her fingertips. "I truly hope you are more happy than I am." Everything was so quiet. It was too quiet. Sakura didn't like that. It seemed like yesterday when Naruto and her were together all the time, almost as if you could never see the two apart suddenly, everything changed like a snap of a finger that they barely talk to each other now. It felt as if they were back in the limited Tsukuyomi when everyone had switched personalities while her and Naruto were trying to figure out how to go back to their own world. 

She hated not knowing the answer to things. She hated not being able to figure out what exactly she wanted to do or how to go through it. It caused her to always get a headache in the end. To save herself from an excruciating headache, she pushed the thoughts of Naruto aside and sipped the last bit of coffee she had left in her mug. Desperately trying to drink every little drop just so she could stop thinking so much. It was no help though, because Naruto always seemed to catch her attention. She was once again caught up in her thoughts when she looked back down at the photograph. All she could do was sigh at this point. Why did she let him go...? Was is worth his happiness? Or hers? Was she acting on impulse? Or simply because she wanted Hinata to be happy? She didn't know and that's what killing her on the inside. A part of her wants to believe she did the right thing but the other part is telling her that she made a huge mistake. 

"It's a little bit too late now... isn't it?" She spoke out loud to no one but herself. It was driving her insane. She loudly got up from her kitchen chair and stormed into her bedroom. Upon entering did she notice that inside her room, only was more silence. The clock on her wall was the only noise resonating in her bedroom. Sighing once again, she frowned and contemplated on what she wanted to give Naruto for his birthday. It was only three days away and yet, she has yet to come up with anything. She had time to—a lot of time but, with the way Hinata acts when it comes to Naruto, and the way Naruto works so much, has really dawned on her, too. She can never focus. He's always too busy. She never had a chance to actually hang out with him or even talk to him. He's always tired and always looks so miserable. 

"Oh, Naruto..." she whispered to herself. "I will make it up to you. I promise." She closed her eyes as she made the silent promise to Naruto and clenched her fists. She was determined to make Naruto have the best birthday and even if it was for just a day, she wanted to at least try to have a better relationship with him. Opening her emerald eyes, she was brought to tears on how their relationship just fell apart so quick. 

"Why now...?" She thought. "Why did it take me this long to figure this out? And to think Naruto was the dense idiot..." she chuckled lightly and almost cursed at herself. "He's my friend and I let him go."

Was he really just a _friend_...

**End of Chapter 1**


	2. Feelings

**—NeneWorld—**

**WHY NOW**

** Chapter 2 **\- Feelings

**October 8**

Waking up at the crack of dawn, Sakura swore that she was coming on to a case of insomnia. It was beginning to become unbearable. Endless sleepless nights was not something she wanted to keep going through. She brushed her bangs to the side of her face with the back of hand and sat there still just staring out her window looking at nothing—just listening to the sweet sounds of the birds chirping. She softly smiled to herself thinking that she is probably the only one in her village—including the birds, were up right now. She absentmindedly licked her lips and averted her eyes to maple wood tree that she happened to love gazing at. Her soft smile turned into a genuine one. For the first time she felt happy. 

The suns rays were slowly creeping up Sakura's face once it hit her emerald eyes, she suddenly blinked at the surprise as it alerted her of the time. She got up quickly—tumbling over clothes scattered all over her floor and old cans of her favorite snack, Dango. She did a little tiny jump and yelped loudly as she stepped on a pencil and heard it crack beneath her feet. She quickly lifted up her right foot to check to see if there was any damage. Luckily, there wasn't as she finally made it to the door. Yanking the door open, she quickly left out of her bedroom and closed the door behind her—sighing heavily as she was trying to regain her breath. She sank to the floor with her back sliding against her bedroom door. 

"I have got to remember to clean my room." She plopped up from off the floor and slowly made her way to her bathroom. "Or maybe even hire a maid." She rolled her eyes at that idea. She wasn't a lazy person—anything she set her mind to, she made sure to jump on it and act quickly with it. There was no stopping her. 

The sound of the toilet being flushed was echoing off the walls. She still hasn't gotten used to silence—It was always so loud. "Time to get ready for the day." She told herself as she stripped out of her long black satin nightgown and stepped inside of her walk in shower. Even taking a warm soothing shower didn't seem to ease Sakura's mind off of Naruto. She only had two days left to figure out what exactly she wanted to do for Naruto. Two days just wasn't a lot of time. She still needed a lot more time! She began to clench her fists again—a habit she seemed to do often whenever she thought about Naruto. 

Stepping out of the shower, she went into the closet that's in the hallway and began to get dressed—still thinking and going over on what to do. Eventually she has just decided to visit him instead until his birthday. Shyly smiling, she put on her high heels and set foot outside her door—feeling nervous for the first time. 

**—NeneWorld—**

"Day in, day out, it just never ends." Naruto grumbled as he stacked a pile of papers on his desk and straightened them out to quickly scan them over to stamp. He was tired. So very tired that he just couldn't see straight. It was beginning to become hard to focus on the letters that were looking right at him. He didn't want to just stamp it and be on his way to the next one—he wanted to be Hokage so therefore, he had to take this type of responsibility seriously. "It would be great if I had a coffee machine in here or something." He groaned and scratched the top of his head to relieve an itch that crept up on him. "Ugh, I really need a shower." Today was going to be a long day for him. Anyone hardly visited him or even bothered checking in on him once in a while. He was left with so many thoughts and feelings about it. Although, he knew not to let it affect his work. It may not have showed on the inside but on the outside, Naruto was miserable. Everything just seemed to change around him. 

Suddenly there was a knock at the door that alerted him. His eyes widened that the sudden surprise. He hardly ever had anyone knock. Normally, it was always someone storming in to drop loads of more paperwork for him to look over and stamp. "Come in." His voice had cracked a little as he was trying to sound as cool and collected as possible. "Is it Hinata? Why would she be here? Especially this early?" He thought to himself. No one opened the door that Naruto assumed that maybe it was an accident or children running around pulling a prank on him. He seemed to get those a lot and it really annoyed him sometimes. He smacked his lips and grunted—looking back down at the pile of papers he had to look over when eventually, the door was opening up slowly. He looked up and to his surprise was the woman he has barely been seeing lately. His heart had skipped a beat and was so loud, he thought that maybe she had heard it too. 

"Hey Naruto." 

"Sakura-Chan... what... hi... is there something wrong? Are you okay? Did something happen?!" He immediately got out of his chair and started making his way over to Sakura-whom by the way, hasn't even walked fully inside of his office. He was asking so many questions—wanting to know so much about her wellbeing. He was so concerned about her, so invested and sincere in his questions. Sakura almost wanted to cry. His concerns and empathizing just didn't seem to let up. From his unruly hair and the stubbles of hair on his chin—to the deep bags under his eyes, Sakura was drawn to it all.

"He looks like crap and has the nerve to ask about me?" Sakura thought to herself as she was taking all of Naruto in. He was amazing and just didn't know it. "Oh Naruto... I see you'll never change." Her thoughts ended quick as she berated herself and punched Naruto on the side of his arm—not too hard but enough pain to get him to focus. He gets sidetracked too much. 

"Ow! Sakura-Chan! What was that for?!" He yelled out as he started rubbing the pain that was stinging on his left arm. 

"You Baka! I am fine! If I wasn't, I wouldn't even be here!"

"Oh." Naruto closed his eyes and started to vigorously scratch the back of his head. "Then why are you here if you're fine? I don't get it..."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak but her attention was immediately caught by a vile smell radiating from the man in front of her.

"Oh God Naruto! What is that smell? That's not **YOU **is it?"

"Huh?" Naruto stopped scratching his head and had a look of embarrassment on his face. "Yeah, that's me Sakura-Chan, sorry. I haven't been really home to be able to take a shower. I've been spending the night here at the office a lot..." his face changed from embarrassment to sadness. Sakura immediately caught this and started to feel empathetic about his situation. And here she thought that Naruto was happy...

"Naruto... I had no idea. I'm sorry. I-I."

"It's okay Sakura-Chan, I'm used to it..."

There was a pregnant pause that Sakura felt like she was back in her apartment. She didn't like silence. But even with it being silent, she wasn't lonely...

"No Naruto, you need to take a break and take care of yourself!"

"I wish I could Sakura-Chan, but Hinata says that being Hokage is a huge responsibility and I have to do this..."

"Naruto..."

"Besides! I'm not that smelly! I think you're just over exaggerating a litt-" he instantly got cut off once he lifted his arm up and took a whiff of his armpit and almost puked.

"Naruto! Are you okay?!"

"Ye-yeaugh Sa-Sakura-Chan, I'm goougd." He was stammering and making puke noises with his mouth. Sakura would be lying to herself if she said that she wasn't enjoying this because, she was. She was enjoying this a lot.

"You never listen to me. You're so stubborn Naruto."

"How am I stubborn?!" He retorted back—taking in the soft smile that was planted on her face. Her lips were rosy pink but her eyes told a different story. She didn't look like herself. She looked sad.

"I told you to take a break and take care of yourself! You don't always need to work ya know?"

Naruto was taken aback at her last words. "Ya know?" He thought to himself. "I think something is definitely wrong with Sakura-Chan..."

"What did you just say Sakura-Chan?" He heard her say something and her face change to a more serious one—almost deadly. He wasn't listening to her though because he was too focused on why she said what he says.

"I said," she started—dragging her words as she spoke. "You're leaving right now with me to go and freshen up! That's not healthy Naruto!"

"Sakura, but Hinata said,"

"I don't care what Hinata says!"

"Wha-what? But why?"

She took a deep breath, still smelling the horrible stench radiating from him and swallowed spit. 

"Because I really believe it's much more than what Hinata says..."

Naruto almost gasped out loud but just gulped it down instead. He forgot how intelligent Sakura is. "And beautiful..." he thought and wanted to be slapped to the next village. He was with Hinata, he shouldn't be thinking such thoughts. "It's okay to admire your friends though. There's nothing wrong with that." He told himself and took a deep breath, almost puking again. 

"I think we should get going Sakura-Chan," he started to scratch the back of his head again and had a nervous smile on his face. "Anymore of me smelling myself and I'm sure to puke everywhere, heh-heh-heh."

Sakura rolled her eyes and turned around to leave—feeling Naruto walking closely behind her. She felt his warmth, his height difference, his presence alone was making the hairs on the back of her neck flutter as if they were butterflies in her stomach. She could smell him—and even if he did smell _oh-so-horrible_, she found herself liking it. These feelings that she was feeling was warming up here insides like it was set on fire. She wanted to hate it; She wanted to push them away but, somehow, her feelings were overriding her thoughts. 

"Stop it Sakura." She was thinking to herself again—she could feel the headache creeping up on her. "These feelings are not real." Her thinking to herself caused her to not hear the blonde calling out her name. 

"Sakura-Chan."

"Huh?" She suddenly turned to look at him and had to look up just to meet his eyes. His height frightened her that she took a deep breath. His manly physique and his charming alluring eyes were sure to blind her at any moment.

"Are we going to your place or mine? Cause I don't think Hinata would like that very much, heh."

There he goes, scratching the back of his head again.

"You mean, **YOU** won't like that very much, Naruto?" She smirked at him, did a little spin to face forward, and started heading off into the direction of her apartment. She admits that she's playing with him a little. It was fun to her. But she knew she was only doing it to hide her feelings. 

"Who am I kidding?" She thought again as she was dashing towards home. "I like him... much more than a _friend._"

**End of Chapter 2**


End file.
